“I hope you can come with us” - this was what my friend told me at the beginning of the week. We were scheduled to go up to Mirabel on Saturday, for a friend’s birthday surprise celebration in the middle of the bushes.
I saw the website of the place and it looked interesting. Child play for adults I told myself, at least this is what I thought.
To give you a summary of what the TreeGo is (“d’arbre en arbre” in French), it is a scaled down and fun version of a military assault course in the forest, adapted to us mortals and civilians,
I‘m sure it is far easier than the training received by Rambo in France. France? Yes, it was a retired French general that developed the concept in the old continent. In 2002 the concept is brought up to Quebec, where 8 parks are presently open. British Columbia followed, and finally New York State and New Brunswick got their first park in 2007.
This aerial adventure is divided in four levels of difficulty:
Discovery - Green
Sensation - Blue
Emotion - Red
No limit - Black
Basically you run from tree to tree using whatever means are available between them, which could be monkey bridges, wooden footbridges, nets, cables, zip lines, beams, and other which I don’t remember. They say it takes between 2 and 3 hours to finish the entire course, but this will depend in the physical and mental ability of your group.
It has been one of the most interesting outdoors activity I’ve done this Summer, and I highly recommend everyone to try it out. It is not just a fun way to spend your time with friends, but also it pushes your body and mind in a different way.
For those with fear of heights, I would say this is the perfect place to deal with your phobia. Even if you are not scare I say there are time you think “what am I doing up here man?” and the only choice is to continue until the end of the course you are on, because that is the only place where you can climb down to the ground if you chose to do so.
Is it safe? Very much and after digging out information, I found out the TreeGo has up to now been 100% free of incidents. Although you know you are always attached to the safe line, I kept thinking what would happen if I were to lose my equilibrium? I know I wouldn’t fall to the ground, but what would I do with my pride man?
Nevertheless this never happened to anybody in our group. For a moment I thought about not doing the last level (No limit), but how was I going to explain this to the cutie that was right behind me?
[Quote] Safety during the course is provided by means of a harness, a double lanyard and two carabineers worn by the participant which is attached to a life-line (red-coated steel cable). Instructions on the whole procedure given prior to departure.[/Quote]
Took several pictures in the first two levels, but right at the beginning of the third course, where I found myself wondering how I was going to jump from one beam to another without “falling”, I started to spend more time concentrating in my steps than in my camera - I should had given it to one of my friends.
The zip lines are the easiest and relaxing part of the whole adventure, can’t say the same for those freaking moving logs in the air, or those rings that made me feel as if I was doing Yoga in the air.
Perfect group activity, where your body will sometimes be physically pushed, and in others your mind is the one you will have to push. Finally, talk about trusting those little metal clips to hold your entire weight in the air eh?
Visit their site for more information about the D'arbre en arbre network.
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